A Big Universe
by Fistful of Gamma Rays
Summary: Very short stories. Various characters, various genres. Updated irregularly.
1. A Night Out

**Title:** A Night Out

**Characters:** Male Shepard, Garrus, Grunt

**Genre:** Humor

* * *

Shepard was pretty sure Garrus hadn't actually been serious when he'd suggested their krogan problem could be taken care of by a round of drinks and a dance, but hell, it was worth trying before they subjected themselves to whatever horrifying ritual krogan went through to prove their manhood. Omega had been out for obvious reasons, so they'd headed to Ilium, which had almost as many cheap dives and marginally better odds of getting through an entire night with all your organs and most of your credits.

The decision had been impulsive - Wrex had been wearing that smug look that usually meant he was about to get the best of someone in an especially graphic way - but the longer he was here, the more he thought it had been a good idea. They were on a goddamned suicide mission. They deserved some downtime before they bit the big one.

He squinted across the bar at an asari with sky blue skin and startlingly dark eye-markings highlighted by iridescent paint.

"Her."

Garrus eyed him with something suspiciously like amusement. "You're drunk, Shepard."

"I was dead," he clarified. "I deserve a drink. Drinks. You're allowed to get drunk after you've been dead." He found the asari again after a moment's disorientation in the crowd. "Seriously, you should talk to her. Chicks dig scars."

Garrus' raised a brow plate archly. "As touched as I am by your concern for my love life, you deputized me two drinks ago."

"Oh." He frowned thoughtfully. "Maybe I should talk to her. Ask her to dance."

Garrus' whole frame shook violently, and he produced a few strange-sounding coughs before replying, mandibles quivering, "I don't think that's a good idea. But you know what? Go ahead if you want. I'll watch."

Shepard stared at him for a second, plagued by the feeling that something was off about that response, but it soon passed. "Maybe I will," he said defiantly.

Before he could get any farther, a hand clamped down hard on his shoulder and spun him around on his stool. At his side, he heard Garrus curse and get up. He found himself staring up at a tall, formidably built asari. Her other hand had a firm grip on Grunt's jowls. She looked pretty angry.

"Does this belong to you?"

The question threw him for a bit until he recalled that they were on Ilium.

"No," he said.

"Shepard," said Grunt in deafening tones, grinning widely.

Garrus sighed. "Yes, he's with us."

The asari gave Grunt a hard shove in their direction. "Well, get him out of here. He won't stop staring at the girls and he's chased everyone else off the floor."

Grunt swayed in place. "Ah heh. Heh. Heh."

Shepard drew himself up, suddenly angry at the interruption to what had been shaping up to be a fine night. "Do you know who I am? I'm Commander -"

The asari glowered and he felt his jaw snap shut. "I don't care _who_ you are. Can't you read?" She pointed to a sign over the bar. "No. Krogan. On. The dancefloor."

He blinked. "That's racist."

"It's a _safety measure_."

He inhaled, and then almost overbalanced on the stool as Garrus' hand descended heavily over his mouth.

"We'll get him home. What do we owe you for the damages?"

The asari said something cutting and things sort of blurred together after that. He had a vague recollection of leaning against Garrus and trying to explain what the lines about the halls of Montezuma and the shores of Tripoli meant. He thought he might have complimented Grunt's singing voice at some point.

It was a long trip back to Tuchanka.


	2. Requiem

**Title:** Requiem

**Characters:** Javik

**Genre:** Angst? I guess?

* * *

The corridor they paced down was clean and bright, in the fashion of this cycle, but it felt fearful. It did not yet hold the sharpness of panic, but the walls beat dully with the despair and anxiety of the troops stationed here. There was a bleak familiarity to it, a bitter taste of his own time.

"Thank you for coming," said the man leading him down the hall. A junior officer, young and new to this post, lacking the weariness that pervaded the other lives here. He had filled the trip with empty babble, and Javik wished that he would either cease or make himself clear.

"The commander thought you might have some insight into the situation." The guide (Smith, he thought the man was named) cast an unsubtle glance up at Javik. "It's an honor to meet you, sir."

"Get to the point, human. For what do you require my assistance?"

Smith's steps slowed and his face stilled. "It's… well, it's easier to show you. We're almost there."

He gestured to a doorway ahead of them, the only door in the hallway with guards stationed outside it. His guide stopped and spoke to one of them. A comm exchange followed, and the door slid open.

They stepped inside past another guard and rounded a corner, and Javik felt an icy shock of rage clutch him. He drew his sidearm, but Smith shouted and yanked at him and the shot went wide, burying itself in the ceiling. He found himself breathing hard, unable to take his eyes off the thing in the center of the room.

"Explain. _Now._"

"Our unit drops the Leviathan devices behind enemy lines," said Smith, quietly. "Usually, they all die. This one lived and surrendered to us."

There was a containment field around it, he saw now. Someone had provided a chair, and the Collector sat in it, staring blankly ahead, its hands folded incongruously in its lap. It was naked, faceless, atavistic.

His lip twisted. _I will never again see another one of my people._

"Why did you not kill it?"

"It laid down its weapon and offered no resistance."

Javik rounded on him. "You are a fool."

Smith drew back. "You want us to kill an unarmed prisoner who surrendered peacefully?" He met Javik's eyes squarely for the first time. "That's not how things work in the Alliance."

"You think to be merciful?" he spat out. "The only mercy you could have offered it is a bullet in the head. It is less than an animal."

Smith continued to meet his gaze, and he felt a grudging respect for the man. "Sir, I don't believe that. It deliberately surrendered itself. It purposefully laid down its gun when it saw us. Those are not the actions of an animal. We were hoping you could tell us if you'd heard of anything similar."

A Collector surrendering itself? The thought was abhorrent. The Collectors were the Reapers' tools, and nothing more. They could not be anything more.

"No," he said after a moment. "Never. Execute it. It will betray you." He turned on his heel, ignoring Smith's protests, but before he could take a step, a sound halted him in his tracks.

It was a dry, bestial chittering, something he'd heard hundreds of times before on the battlefields of his own time. He spun, heart pounding, and found that the Collector had moved to the very edge of the containment field, its hands raised in front of it. It chittered again, and then, haltingly, it made noises like the ones the humans of this time made. Javik watched, mesmerized, a mounting tide of horror rising in his chest as it struggled to speak.

"No," it said, its voice hoarse and whispery. "No betrayal. Alone."

"That is a lie," he said harshly. "You are the Reapers' creature."

"We saw you," it said. "We recognized you." It was staring at him, its blank gaze fixed on his own.

He recoiled as if struck. "Your existence is an insult to the memory of my people."

"Once, we were more."

_Once, we were more._ An old, bitter grief rose in his throat, and he closed his eyes against it.

"Very well," he said quietly after a moment, and forced himself to return the Collector's stare. "Give it a weapon and allow it to fight its former masters. Be ready to kill it when the time comes." He turned and strode to the exit, leaving Smith and his questions behind.

The Collector's gaze followed him, but it did not speak again.

.

.

.

_AN:_ _Some context is probably required for this one for anyone who doesn't regularly play ME multiplayer. The Awakened Collector is a playable kit released in the last DLC. It's pretty lore-breaking, but the idea itself was high-octane nightmare fuel. (And therefore something I kind of wanted to write about.)_


End file.
